Posted on 11/26/2007 2:45:51 AM PST by gondramB
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumers are financing both sides in the war on terror because of the actions of U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday.
The former Arkansas governor made the comments following what he suggested was a muted response by the Bush administration to a Saudi court's sentence of six months in jail and 200 lashes for a woman who was gang raped.
"The United States has been far too involved in sort of looking the other way, not only at the atrocities of human rights and violation of women," Huckabee said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"Every time we put our credit card in the gas pump, we're paying so that the Saudis get rich - filthy, obscenely rich, and that money then ends up going to funding madrassas," schools "that train the terrorists," said Huckabee. "America has allowed itself to become enslaved to Saudi oil. It's absurd. It's embarrassing."
Huckabee said "I would make the United States energy independent within 10 years and tell the Saudis they can keep their oil just like they can keep their sand, that we won't need either one of them."
Responding to the gang rape case in Saudi Arabia, the State Department expressed astonishment about the sentence of the Saudi court against the rape victim.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
The same people who oppose oil exploration in the U.S. also oppose the only form of alternative energy that could make us dramatically less dependent on foreign oil - nuclear power. We invented nuclear power but France now gets 80% of their power from nuclear while we pay $100 a barrel to prop up dubious friends and even enemies.
If any good is to come out of campaigns like Ron Paul and Huckabee it would be if the whole Republican field would take Huckabee's energy policy and Ron Paul's smaller government and constitutional approach and even Ron Paul online strategy.
But even here Huckabee is dangerous - we need nuclear power and more oil exploration but we don't need to publicly tell the Saudis to go to hell... yet. For right now we need their oil and we need them to not get overthrown and replaced with something worse.
Huck is very dangerous. He is lover of State Power, pretending to be a conservative. Huck is has stated on more than one occasion he belief in man-made Global warming. His record shows a strong instinct to raise taxes and grow government. As someone else stated, he is a pro-life Liberal. Huck would be an absolute disaster for our Republic. Huck is a liberal pretending to be a conservative. That's why the MSM is fawning all over him. He will be very easy for the MSM to destroy (if he gets the nod on the Rep side); thereby giving Hillary the win.
Is Huckabee saying “drill ANWAR, drill offshore, build more nuclear power plants”? If he’s saying all that, I agree with him. But is that what he’s saying?
http://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.View&Issue_id=21
* The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. We will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term.
* Achieving energy independence is vital to achieving success both in the war on terror and in globalization. Energy independence will help guarantee both our safety and our prosperity.
* We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass.
Energy independence has been on our “to do” list for over thirty years, my whole adult life. In 1973, in response to OPEC’s oil embargo against us, President Nixon established Project Independence, which promised independence in 1980. We could have been energy independent a generation ago! The truth is, we are so pathetically behind the curve right now that federal spending for energy research and development is only 40% of what it was in 1979. Our efforts are haphazard and often pointless: today we have six million flex-fuel vehicles built to run on biodiesel or on E85, which is 85% ethanol, but only 2,000 pumps for those fuels in a country with 170,000 gas stations.
When energy shocks and crises come, we take aspirin to deal with the pain, but we don’t address the underlying symptoms. This oil addiction is killing us. We have to stop popping pain pills and get ourselves cured. For all these years, we’ve never lacked the means, just the will. We’ve never harnessed the real energy source that independence requires - the energy of the American people.
The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. I’ll use the bully pulpit to inform you about the plan and ask for your support. I’ll use the bully conference table to meet with members of Congress until I have the votes. The plan will get underway during my first term, and we will achieve energy independence by the end of my second term. The Huckabee Administration will be remembered as the time when we finally, finally achieved energy independence.
We have to explore, we have to conserve, and we have to pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel, and biomass. Some will come from our farms and some will come from our laboratories. Dwindling supplies and increasing demand from newly-industrialized countries of fossil fuels are driving up prices. These price increases will facilitate innovation and the opportunity for independence. We will remove red tape that slows innovation. We will set aside a federal research and development budget that will be matched by the private sector to seek the best new products in alternative fuels. Our free market will sort out what makes the most sense economically and will reward consumer preferences.
We think of globalization as primarily an economic issue and the war on terror as primarily a military issue. Yet the same key unlocks the door to success in both, and that key is energy independence.
None of us would write a check to Osama bin Laden, slip it in a Hallmark card and send it off to him. But that’s what we’re doing every time we pull into a gas station. We’re paying for both sides in the war on terror - our side with our tax dollars, the terrorists’ side with our gas dollars.
Our dependence on foreign oil has forced us to support repressive regimes, to conduct our foreign policy with one hand tied behind our back. It’s time, it’s past time, to untie that hand and reach out to moderate Muslims with both hands. Oil has not just shaped our foreign policy, it has deformed it. When I make foreign policy, I want to treat Saudi Arabia the same way I treat Sweden, and that requires us to be energy independent. These folks have had us over a barrel - literally - for way too long.
Energy independence will ease the effects of globalization because the future energy demands of countries like India and China, as their middle class grows, are going to be tremendous. Even if Middle East supplies remain stable - a huge if - that increased demand will drive prices up dramatically, which will hurt our economy by making everything more expensive here. But if we are energy independent, we will be able not just to take care of our own needs and protect our economy, we will also create jobs and grow our economy by developing technologies that we can sell to the rest of the world to meet their needs.
Achieving energy independence will make us safer and more prosperous, and is yet another way that I intend to lift America up.
>>Is Huckabee saying “drill ANWAR, drill offshore, build more nuclear power plants”? If he’s saying all that, I agree with him. But is that what he’s saying?<<
Not exactly.... He doesn’t have actual proposals we can keep when he’s gone but I do like the way he make energy independence an issue. That’s why I brought up Ron Paul - I’m hoping that smaller government stays a topic after Paul is no longer a factor.
>>Huckabee says energy independence is vital to success in the war on terror and in the global economy, aiding both our security and our prosperity. To achieve it, he says, we will have to explore and conserve, and pursue all avenues of alternative energy: nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, clean coal, biodiesel and biomass.<<
>>Here is Huckabee’s plan. Seems long on slogans and short on specifics solutions to me.<<
That is my take as well. Huckabee reminds me of Huey Long or William Jennings Bryan - selling progress without details or a cost/benefit analysis.
But its a small positive if he gets energy independence and reevaluating the Saudis into the discussion mix.
Huckabee seems to have have a flair for the very obvious. Does he think there are Americans who do not realize all this? Huckabee is such a panderer, he isn’t very knowledgeable about most of the critical issues and panders with simplistic overtures of no real worth.
How are we going to become energy independent, Gov. Huckabee? We all realize the problem, it’s a viable solution that is the real problem. With his “compassionate conservative” approach he is likely thinking along the lines of government-subsidized ethanol coupled with some other equally unimpressive solutions.
We have the energy right here in the USA. There are single states in the US who have more energy potential in coal than Saudi Arabia has in oil. Diesel from coal, it’s viable, it’s an abundant resource and it could make America energy independent in short order. First, we must rid ourselves of the anthropogenic global warming hoax. Diesel from coal plants are presently in the works and a few are due to go online next year. In the meantime, alternative energy sources can be worked out and vetted as to their viability. All current viable resources are limited and this would allow us time to rationally research viable alternatives in the interim. This rush for alternatives, throwing them against the wall and seeing what sticks is impractical and fruitless.
On Thanksgiving a conservative I know told me Huckabee is her candidate, and I think my jaw actually fell open. All she seemed to know about him was that he was pro-life and he "helps the poor"--to which I could only respond "With taxpayers' money."
What is it with conservatives falling for this guy?
He might have picked up a few Dem votes but he just lost the global market backers.
The fiscals C's are coming in 3..2..1
Price of oil: more or less the same. Guess what: Saudis still get rich.
So what effect exactly would it have, except perhaps a slight boost in the price of oil (and Saudis' wealth) due to the increased inefficiency of the market?
No, he is saying put in a mandatory cap and trade system to fight global warming.
“I would make the United States energy independent within 10 years”
And the tooth fairy is real.
“The first thing I will do as President is send Congress my comprehensive plan for energy independence. “
Oh, that’s the ticket, a COMPREHENSIVE plan, not just any plan. Why didn’t I think of such an easy solution.
Huckabee makes it sound like we import most of our oil from Saudi Arabia...but he’s wrong. We import the most oil from Canada, then Mexico, then Venezuela, then Western africa and then its Saudi Arabia.
If this clown is going to run for POTUS then he’d better get his facts straight...or some Democrat candidate will flame his butt.
Is the Devil in the details?
One of the big opponents of oil drilling in the U.S. is the “Republican” governor of FL! And his prededessor too!
Huckabee also surely knows about the import numbers, but he knows Europe takes much of the Mideast oil, which the U.S. would have to compete with otherwise.
Huckabee supported socialist programs in AR, but I don’t think he is a national socialist. It’s like the Chamber of Commerce people advocating tax hikes at the local level for “improvements” but not at the national level for its bad effect on the overall economy.
Huckabee seems to be moving into third place behind Rudy and Romney, but we can’t know until the “mighty IA” comes up to bat.
Are people insane? Another Presidential candidate from Arkansas? Are we nuts?
Harry Reid of NV just declared any Republican president’s “comprehensive energy plan” to be submitted in 2009 “dead on arrival”. Better make Reid and Pelosi the issue, but the candidates won’t because most voters don’t know Reid and Pelosi, way beyond their level of “expertise”.
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